Coping in an Age of Uncertainty

Coffeey, were you speaking to yourself or us? ; )

Anyway, fine. *If* and only if you like Classical and classic rock and jazz, SACD is a pretty safe bet now. Word on the street is that it has established itself as the prefered audiophile format. If you're an Emimem kinda dude, (nothing wrong with that), stay with your redbook. Dual disc is coming, was coming, which got the DVDA crowd all excited, yet producers can use the real estate on the disc any way they want, and DVDA may be pushed to the wayside. The CD side can only hold 58 minutes.

The problem with what you say is that "redbook" is getting better. It *cannot* get better, as its information is limited. Recording machines have gotten better and better over the last 20 years, yet the improvements can only barely be reflected in the good 'ole redbook CD. Ironically, the better your system, the more it's going to reveal the deficiencies of the 16bit. In any case, as much as my SACD player leaves me beyond criticism, I'm still keeping an eye out for mid-fi redbook only player next year--850 of them are collecting dust in the closet.

Trying to speak to everybody,58 minutes so whatMaybe redbook can only go so far but does that explain why plain old cd players have been soundimg better lately,Last thing i need is to make somebody else rich by buying a new format.Its not the technology it is what you do with it.

Here we go again....it never ends.

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=258&Thread=9821&Type=3

CDs with all their warts are a certainty. The future of DVDa and SACD are uncertainties. Yes there will be better formats but until they become mass market they are only a niche product. When a better format becomes mass market (like the CD) I will buy into it. I liked the idea of the digital cassette but that one only lasted about 60 seconds.

No matter what, you can't talk about it unless you experience it. So to wait for a player or software that would make you change your mind is kind of counterproductive in this form of talk.

When I hear "It would be a mistake to buy into a new format right now" I have chills running down my spine!
It is a business! Good or bad! MONEY TALKS!

And yes I blame the mfg's for this mess, but looks like they have no interest in cleaning it up either.

Why do you think SONY is lowering it's ambition on it's DSD catalog program??? Because IT MAKES NO ECONOMIC SENSE for them.
At first it was the issue with DVDa vs SACD. Now it's like media vs download! The tide has moved and you are falling asleep!
DVD is far better then CD, too bad many engineers in studios still don't know how to mix for 5.1. Turns off a lot of stereo lovers.
DSD is better then anything you ever had! (In theory or if you got an EMM player.) I think it's better then analog when done right. It is still expensive to get right tough.

I think everyone who can afford it should get a UNIVERSAL player, I know you don't want to be a guinea pig, but if don't start buying titles the industry will soon pull the plug in we will be left with I-pods and compressed AAC files!

CD as a medium is basically dead. Like it or not if you look at CD sales they are slowly but surly loosing ground to downloaded files. So stop bickering and get a freaking player now! The new Marantz dv9500 is a good place to start.
I for one would hope to see SACD survive because DVDa is just ain't that cool (video menus, PCM sound).
There is one other really disturbing issue with all of those 1000 of cd's we all have.
They are disintegrating at a faster rate then previously advertised. Last year when I discovered that some of my CD's are simply "fading" and some wont even play anymore, I quickly moved em all to a music server (lossless compression.) And never looked back!
It has lower jitter then any transport I have ever had (5ppm)! Of course it does, it's got enough buffer for an entire album, not just a few samples like $20k motor driven spinning platter.